Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Mini Tofu Loaves

Here's a very easy recipe to make with 350 gms of tofu. If you have a pan like this it's very cute to make these little mini-loaves. If not, you can either do the loaf free-form style and place on a baking sheet, or bake in a small glass baking pan instead. If you prefer a gluten-free loaf substitute the 2/3 cups bread crumbs with another starch such as 2/3 cup cooked rice, quinoa flakes or quick oats. This loaf does not taste the best or slice easily the minute it comes out of the oven. I recommend that you leave it overnight in the fridge before slicing and eating. One mini-loaf made all the slices shown above. It's amazing how much more it looks cut-up than whole.

Mix flaxseed with milk in a small bowl and set aside. Put tofu in a medium size bowl and squish it around with your fingers until quite smooth. Add flaxseed/milk mixture and the rest of the ingredients to the tofu. Mix together well. Taste and adjust seasonings if required. Divide into 4 equal portions if using mini-loaf pan as this recipe makes exactly 4 loaves. Spray pans so that your loaves will come out easily. Top each loaf with a teaspoon and a half or so of ketchup.

Bake at 350F for about 1 hour. Cool in pan for 5 minutes or so then turn out onto cooling rack. Refrigerate overnight or several hours (must be very well chilled in order for texture to become firm enough for slicing). Once chilled you can eat it straight out of the fridge either with a salad or on a slice of bread with mustard. If you prefer it warmed you can pan fry lightly and serve it with some steamed veggies. Serves four.

Veggie Prairie Girl RamblesConsidering that the price of tofu is approx. $2.60 for 350 gm of organic and $1.99 for non-organic it is indeed a very economical source of food energy. As well, firm tofu, at 100 calories per 85 gm serving (which is the amount of tofu in one mini-loaf) is a waist-watchers dream! As well, for those who prefer gluten-free, this baked tofu loaf made as such (with the rice, oats or quinoa) is an excellent alternative to seitan when cut into chunks for use in pot pies and stews.